Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has been speaking about his long-term plans for the team but says it may take eight years to begin to challenge with the top teams.

However, McCarthy thinks the league’s top four are pretty much untouchable and Wolves must be realistic when setting targets.

He said: “My long-term ambition is to help Wolves stay in the Premier League and build on it. I’ve no desire to go anywhere else. I love the club. I love where I live. We all want personal gratification. But that’s a by-product of staying in it. I get some pats on the back.

“We’re never going to compete with the top four. How long have Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal been doing it? No one else is competing with them anyway. If Martin O’Neill and Harry Redknapp can’t compete with the top three, why do we think we can?

“The one thing that stands out in my mind is Alan Curbishley leaving Charlton after making them a top 10 team. They weren’t happy with him. They wanted to be better. All the soundbites when he left. B****cks.“

Before today’s Premier League games, Wolves lie five points clear of the relegation zone and McCarthy wants to eclipse what David Moyes has done at Everton.

He said:“Grow up and understand where your position in life is. Kick against the trend and beat one or two of them along the way. Everton have done it. They are as good as anyone we’ve played but it’s taken David Moyes eight years to build that team.

“If we’re in the Premier League in eight years I’d love to think I’ve got a side like Moyesy. I live in the area and care how fans feel. Their desires and opinions don’t match reality. You end up in Disney World. I’m in the real world.”

My verdict:A pretty good assessment from MM as per usual. With the right investment we can push to be at least a decent mid table side in the next few years. It would be interesting to see how things developed past that point.

What do you think Wolves’ realistic target could be over the next decade? Leave your comments below.

Both teams lined up with a 4-5-1 formation which meant there was little space for anyone to create anything in the midfield area.

Wanderers mustered only one shot on target all game compared to Everton’s 14 and rarely gave Tim Howard any trouble in the Everton goal.

Everton were tidy with their passing but missed good chances at a sun-soaked Molineux.

Ronald Zubar seemed to have a huge, green Fifa 10 arrow above his head as he continuously bombed down the right flank to support the impressive Kevin Foley but his crosses didn’t find their intended targets.

My verdict: A great point for Wolves and our first clean sheet since beating Spurs in February. The fact there was no Mikel Arteta for Everton helped us as his replacement didn’t cause many problems. I’m a bit gutted that I didn’t get to see him play because he’s been on fire recently.

Man of the match:Jody Craddock – great display from the veteran to keep Saha and then Yakubu in check. A vital goal line clearance in injury time made sure Wolves took a point.

Flop of the match:Christophe Berra – despite some people saying he’s a no messing defender, I think he’s terrible. He just seems to mess up needlessly and bottle it under pressure. To compound Berra’s misery, Ronald Zubar said on Soccer Saturday that he had the worst accent in the whole Wolves squad.

Referee: Mike Jones– I’m not going to waste my time writing about the catalogue of bad decisions from the official today. In one word – shambolic!

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has today insisted that he and the players were keeping things in perspective despite Wolves’ 3-1 at West Ham on Tuesday.

McCarthy hopes all the fans were jubiliant after Tuesday night but wants everyone to stay calm.

He said: “I hope the fans were celebrating the result and nothing else, because how quickly could it turn around? If Hull and Burnley win two games and we don’t get anything out of tomorrow and then go down to Arsenal, it could be so different. It’s dangerous ground that, because this is another game.

“We’re not getting carried away – do people think we’re quaffing champagne and smoking cigars? Do me a favour. Everyone is blowing smoke up our rears at the moment. Once you start feeling like that outwardly, that’s when you get a slap. We could get our backsides kicked against Everton, because the Premier League is like that.

“You can get results through style, but we’ve done it with hard work and if you get ahead that way in a game where the other team is suffering and the fans are giving them stick, you get that bit of confidence to pass it. But you have to earn the right to do that. We’ll have to work twice as hard against Everton and then Arsenal.

“If you start off tomorrow like we did for periods against West Ham when we played with a bit of style we’ll get slapped. If we start off doing all the negative, horrible jobs properly such as beating them up, winning the fight, being in their half and in their faces, turning them around, putting them under pressure, being solid, not giving anything away, we can get a foothold in the game. But don’t start thinking we’re going out to play football otherwise we’ll get turned over.”

My verdict: MM is right. We all need to stay calm until it’s mathematically impossible for us to go down. I still think we will stay up but we’ve just got to keep going and picking up points. Up the Wolves!